About Me

Mitch Wheat has been working as a professional programmer since 1984, graduating with a honours degree in Mathematics from Warwick University, UK in 1986. He moved to Perth in 1995, having worked in software houses in London and Rotterdam. He has worked in the areas of mining, electronics, research, defence, financial, GIS, telecommunications, engineering, and information management.
Mitch has worked mainly with Microsoft technologies (since Windows version 3.0) but has also used UNIX. He holds the following Microsoft certifications: MCPD (Web and Windows) using C# and SQL Server MCITP (Admin and Developer). His preferred development environment is C#, .Net Framework and SQL Server. Mitch has worked as an independent consultant for the last 10 years, and is currently involved with helping teams improve their Software Development Life Cycle. His areas of special interest lie in performance tuning

SQL Server Transaction Log size does not match the size of the data being loaded

The ISV created an empty database, setup a backup device, set the database recovery model to FULL, and then started loading data. They also intended to backup the transaction log occasionally to keep the log a manageable size. However, at the end of the load process although the database contained 92 GB of data, the log was only 1.2 GB. One would have expected that the transaction log in the case of FULL recovery would have been approximately the same size as the data.

After confirming the database was in FULL recovery mode, they tried BULK LOGGED and got the same result!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Changes to Microsoft Certified Master: Microsoft SQL Server 2008

When I first heard about the SQL Server Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) certification, it immediately struck me as something worth doing. Then I found out how much it cost! Microsoft have recently announced changes to the original program. In order to pursue the SQL Server Microsoft Certified Master certification you still need the pre-requisites MCITP: Database Developer 2008 (Exam 70-450) and MCITP: Database Administrator 2008 (Exam 70-451). If you work with SQL Server, these 2 exams are relatively easy (unlike the rest of the MCM).

The Original Program:

Cost: $18,500 for 3 continuous weeks of onsite training, based in Seattle

Three written multiple-choice exams during the training

One final six-hour lab

This has some obvious drawbacks: US$18,500 is a considerable sum of money to find in one go (even with the strong Aussie dollar), and that’s in addition to taking 3 continuous weeks away from work. Plus the course only happened in Redmond, so add travelling costs as well.

The New Program:

Certification and training are separate

A written multiple-choice knowledge exam (88-970): cost US$500, taken at Prometric testing centres

Microsoft will no longer provide training for the SQL MCM. Instead, training will provided by approved third-party vendors. I’ve just visited the Prometric site but cannot find any test centres for the MCM exams in Australia!

Sunday, December 05, 2010

DevJam 2010

I really enjoy our User Group’s end of year ‘DevJam’ events (despite the fact that it involves a bit of work to organise). It is great to see so many local developers willing to give up their time to present a talk. Around 50 people attended last Thursday’s event, so it was a relief when the pizza finally arrived. A crowd of developers deprived of pizza is a riot waiting to happen ;) !

It was a great line-up of topics with a nice mixture of content, and every presenter did a great job of informing and entertaining. Every talk received a good number of audience votes, but we have to have some winners in order to give out the prizes! The favourite talks (in order) were:

Adrian McGrath - WPF: Design Time Data

Alistair Waddell - A simple approach to test your data driven app

Michael Minutillo - Dynamic UI in WinForms

Thank you to all the sponsors who help make these events possible: Microsoft (for the venue and VS2010 MSDN door prize), UGSS for the pizza and refreshments, JetBrains, Joe Albahari, RedGate, TekPub, Scooter Software, DevExpress, TechSmith. [The presenter VS2010 with MSDN prize was donated by myself from the MVP program.]

Thank you to everyone who attended DevJam and meetings throughout the year. Special thanks to Dave Gardner who fetched and delivered the beer.